#crip coins

[cripcoin]

Diuturnic / Chronic Illness flags

Diuturnic is a suffix for chronic illness and long lasting conditions.

The flags above are as follows

Diuturnic -> coming from the latin words Durus (meaning harsh, severe etc) and Diuturna or Diuturnum (meaning long lasting), this term is not meant to be a replacement use for chronic but to encompass all chronic conditions.

DolorDiuturnic / DoloTurnic -> the orange flag, representing chronic pain, dolor is Latin for pain. This includes all forms of chronic pain.

LangourDiuturnic / LangoTurnic -> the blue flag, coming from the Latin word Langour (meaning faintness, weakness, infirmity, feebleness, exhaustion), this term is meant to encompass all forms of chronic fatigue.

It is not required to use the created names to use the flags, you can simply call them alternative flags for chronic illness, pain and fatigue.

Our previous chronic illness flags:

Pain - fatigue

We are accepting requests for sub terms/flags under Diuturnic !

Tagging:

@sanguinaryfreaks , @hewasanamericangirl , @the-church-of-strabismus

[queercripintersex]

Crip and Cripple are different words

So this might be opening up a CAN OF WORMS but as a physically disabled person I just wanna throw out a clarification that I personally think is useful to have explicitly articulated. These two words are DIFFERENT:

Crip: a reference to crip theory and its friends. Refers to ALL disabilities (not just mobility/physical). Similar to queer, it's a way of seeing the world: disability is socially constructed, fuck eugenics, fuck capitalism, fuck colonialism, being disabled means you HAVE to be creative to navigate a world not built for you, disabled people are the OG makers/hackers, and so on. "Crip" is used as a verb to apply to this way of seeing the world to analyse different facets of society (e.g. cripping the arts, crip technoscience). Seen in academic terms like cripistemology and eco-crip theory but also nonacademic contexts like krip-hop and crip time.

Cripple: refers to physically disabled people ONLY. Seen in terms like cripplepunk, which is exclusive to physical disabilities. (Punks with other disabilities are encouraged to use other terms like dyspunktional.)

Yes, "crip" was coined as a shortening of "cripple". Yes, they are both reclamations of the same slur. But I think it is productive for us to understand these two words as distinct, and to be mindful of the difference.

Crip at this point has a very well established usage that is pan-disability, while at the same time we physically disabled we need space to talk about cripple-specific stuff.

I hope this clarification is helpful! I know the two words sound similar and share a root but I think it's a nuance that matters. <3

[intervex]

Disability and intersex: three new flags for three different intersections

EDIT 2024-09-20: new survey on intersex disability flags & coining!

[original post continues...]

The flag on the top with the disability pride rainbows on both sides of the flag is for understanding intersex as part of the disability community. Having the stripes on both ends represent people with other disabilities standing in solidarity with intersex people & fighting the same fights against pathologization, for bodily autonomy, etc.

Considering intersex to be part of the disability community is NOT the same thing as considering intersex to be a medical disorder (intermedicalism). Many disabled people are actively fighting medicalization, with groups like the capital-D Deaf community, mad pride, and the neurodiversity movement being examples.

The flag on the lower left with dark grey on both sides represents people who have disabilities caused by being intersex. For example: chronic pain as a result of IGM, (C)PTSD from medical trauma. People with disabilities linked to being intersex, such as Deafness attributed to MRKH, are also welcome to use this flag.

Finally, the flag on the lower right is for intersex people who also have non-intersex disabilities (e.g. ADHD, EDS, Long Covid). It's an alternative to @queercripintersex's disabled intersex flag for people who prefer the disability pride flag over the universal symbol of access.

I personally interpret @queercripintersex's disabled intersex flag as a flag for intersex and disabled in any way: so it would include people who are disabled solely due to being intersex AND people who are intersex who have non-intersex-related disabilities.

Finally, I wanna coin ~terms~ to go with the first two flags! (Intersex is in disability community; disability secondary to being intersex). But I've been indecisive about what to call them. Disintersex is a solid contender.... but which flag should it be for? 🤔 Interdisabled already has an unrelated meaning. Interdissex is open. Variations on crip also have potential, but I know it's a contested term.

So: two polls! Both polls have the same options, so when voting consider that I want distinct names for the two flags. First poll is below, second poll will be in a second post. 💜

[trans-axolotl2]

I've been reading Cripping Intersex by Celeste Orr and one concept that I think is absolutely crucial and one of the best resources I've found for understanding my own experiences as an intersex person is the term Compulsory Dyadism.

Dr. Orr coins the term: "I propose the expression 'compulsory dyadism' to describe the instituted cultural mandate that people cannot violate the sex dyad, have intersex traits, or 'house the spectre of intersex' (Sparrow 2013, 29). Said spectre must be, according to the mandate, exorcised. However, trying to definitively cast out the spectre via curative violence always fails. The spectre always returns: a new intersex baby is born; one learns that they have intersex traits in adulthood; and/or medical procedures cannot cast out the spectre fully, as evidenced by life-long medical interventions, routines, or patienthood status. And the effects of compulsory dyadism haunt in the form of disabilities, scars, memories, trauma, and medical regimens (e.g., HRT routines). Compulsory dyadism, therefore, is not simply an event or a set of instituted policies but is an ongoing exorcising process and structure of pathologization, curative violence, erasure, trauma, and oppression." (Orr 19-20).

They continue on in their book to explore compulsory dyadism as it shows up in medical interventions, racializing intersex + sports sex testing, and eugenic and prenatal interventions on intersex fetuses. This term makes so much sense to me and puts words to an experience I've been struggling to comprehend--how can it be that so many endosex* people express such revulsion and fear of intersex bodies and traits, yet at the same time don't even know that intersex people exist? Why is it that people understand when I refer to my body in the terms used by freak shows, call myself a hermaphrodite, remember bearded ladies and laugh at interphobic jokes--yet do not even know that intersex people are as common as redheads? Understanding the term compulsory dyadism elucidates this for me. Endosex people might not comprehend what intersex actually is or know anything about our advocacy, but they do grow up in a cultural environment that indoctrinates them into false ideas about the sex binary and cultivates a fear of anything that lies outside of it.

From birth, compulsory dyadism affects every one of us, whether you're intersex or not. Intersex people carry the heaviest burden and often the most visible wounds that compulsory dyadism inflicts, as shown through often the very literal scars of violent, "curative" surgery, but the whole process of sex assignment at birth is a manifestation of compulsory dyadism. Ideas entrenched in the medical system that assign gender to the hormones testosterone and estrogen although neither of those hormones have anything to do with gender, a society that starts selling hair removal products to girls at puberty, and the historical legacy of things like sexual inversion theory are all manifestations of compulsory dyadism. For intersex people, facing compulsory dyadism often means that we are subjected to curative violence, institutionalized medical malpractice that sometimes includes aspects of ritualized sexual abuse, and means that we are left "haunted by, for instance, traumatic memories, acquires body-mind disabilities, an ability that was taken, or a 'paradoxical nostalgia....for all the futures that were lost' (Fisher 2013,45)." (Orr 26).

Compulsory dyadism works in tandem with concepts like compulsory able-bodiedness and compulsory heterosexuality to create mindsets and systems that tie together ideas to suggest that the only "normal" body is a cisgender one that meets capitalist standards of function, is capable of heterosexual sex and reproduction, and has chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, reproductive system, and sex traits that all line up. Part of compulsory dyadism is convincing the public that this is the only way for a body to function, erasing intersex people both by excluding us from public perception and by actively utilizing curative violence as a way to actively erasure intersex traits from our body. Compulsory dyadism works by getting both the endosex and intersex public to buy into the idea that intersex doesn't exist, and if it does exist then it needs to be treated as a freakshow, either exploiting us to put us on display as an aberration or by delegating us to the medical freakshow of experimentation and violence.

Until we all start to fully understand the many, many ways that compulsory dyadism is showing up in our lives, I don't think we're going to be able to achieve true intersex liberation. And in fact, I think many causes are tied into intersex liberation and affected by compulsory dyadism in ways that endosex people don't understand. Take the intense revulsion that some trans people express about the thought of medical transition, for example. Although transitioning does not make people intersex and never will, and the only way to be intersex is to have an intersex variation, I think that compulsory dyadism affects a lot more of that rhetoric than is expressed. The disgust I see some people talking about when they think about medical transition causing them to live in a body that has XX chromosomes, a vagina, but also more hair, a larger clitoris--I think a lot of this rhetoric is born in compulsory dyadism that teaches us to view anything that steps outside the sex dyad with intense fear and violence. I'm thinking about transphobic legislation blocking medical transition and how there's intersex exceptions in almost every one of those bills, and how having an understanding of compulsory dyadism would actually help us understand the ways in which our struggles overlap and choose to build meaningful solidarity, instead of just sitting together by default.

I have so much more to say about this topic, and will probably continue to write about it for a while, but I want to end by just saying: I think this is going to be one of the most important concepts for intersex advocacy going into the next decade. With all due respect and much love to intersex activists both current and present,I think that it's time for a new strategy, not one where we medicalize ourselves and distance ourselves from queer liberation, not one where we sort of just end up as an add on to LGBTQ community by default, not even one where we use a human rights framework, nonprofits, and try to negotiate with the government. I agree with so much of what Dr. Orr says in Cripping Intersex and I think the intersex and/as/is/with disability framework, along with these foundational ideas for understanding our own oppression with the language of compulsory dyadism and curative violence, are providing us with the tools to start laying a foundation for a truly liberatory mode of intersex community building and liberation.

*Endosex means not intersex

Endosex people, please feel free to reblog!

[ipso-faculty]

Today's rabbithole: the origins of "dyadic" as opposite of intersex/h-word

TLDR: "dyadic" seems to come from 1970s radical feminism and seems to have entered intersex vocabulary via gender studies. This implies it is NOT a term coined from within the intersex community.

I've been reading Cripping Intersex since it's this month's pick for @intersexbookclub (and it's not too late for you to pick it up yourself! 💜). One thing that caught my attention is Orr spends a bunch of time presenting the origins of "endosex" and "perisex" as disputed for whether these terms were coined by intersex people or not.

Orr does this because they clearly prefer "dyadic" and are trying to justify why they're talking about "compulsory dyadism" rather than "compulsory endonormativity/perinormativity" etc. 🤨

Interestingly enough, Orr makes absolutely zero attempt in the book to find an origin for the word "dyadic". 🧐 Orr also never questions whether the term "dyadic" actually came from the intersex community. 🧐 So..... rabbit hole time!

Before I get into what I found on dyadic, I wanna quickly fact check Orr on the origin of endosex. Best as I can tell, the term was first used in German in 2000 by Heike Bödeker. Bödeker is controversial for supporting autogynephilia 😬, but I've never seen anybody doubt Bödeker having mixed gonadal dysgenesis. If anybody knows of an older use of endosex, please send it my way! But as far as I can tell, "endosex" was coined by an intersex person.

Okay, onto the origin of dyadic. Orr presents this word as though its only detractors come from its implication there is a sex binary, even though as @intersex-ionality discusses here there are other reasons people don't like it. One reason is that the term is considered to originate from outside the intersex community.

Orr never questions the origins of dyadic. But intersex-ionality's post got me wondering if I could track down an textual origin.

So I went to Google Scholar, searched for "dyad" or "dyadic" plus "intersex" or the h-word and kept changing the time period increasingly far back in time. (Initially I just used intersex until I remembered the h-word slur would be more common in older articles 😬.)

I went into this thinking maybe dyadic would be related to how in early intersex studies literature like Critical Intersex (2009) you can see authors trying out terms like "dimorphic" and "dimorphous" that reference sexual dimorphism. (Neither "dyadic" nor "endosex" show up in the book.)

But the earliest works by intersex scholars that invoke dyadic tend to use it in a way that implies to me it has its own origin - e.g. Malatino (2010) talks about "at one pole, the dyad of the dimorphic heterosexual couple and, at the other, the hermaphroditic body" and "the heteronormative promised land of proper dyadic, dimorphic sex" which gives me the impression dyadic has a more sociological origin rather than the biology origin of dimorphic.

This 2010 gender studies article by Mandy Merck that talks about the intersex rights movement was my first solid lead. Merck draws a direct connection between the intersex rights movement and the 1970 book The Dialectic of Sex by Shulamith Firestone. 😯

In the book, Firestone explicitly talks about the "male-female dyad". This book had a fairly big impact when it came out. Firestone was a big-name second-wave radical feminist. And as Merck puts it: "[Firestone's] aim is to release women and men from the culturally gendered[5] dyad of the “subjective, intuitive, introverted, wishful, dreamy or fantastic” and the “objective, logical, extroverted, realistic”[6] into a society undivided by genital differences. This she calls “integration.”" (emphasis mine)

Pushing the search terms to before the 00s, I found I there were some 1980s botanists kinda using "dyad" as an opposite to "hermaphrodite" (example). I don't know how standard this was though, and with Google Scholar it is important to remember that digitization becomes less common the further back you go. 🤷‍♀️

Judith Butler used "dyadic" in a 1985 article about Foucault's Herculine Barbin.

The Butler article got me searching for more generally - "dyad" or "dyadic" plus "sex-roles male female". I found lots of results using dyadic to talk about female/male sex roles from the 1970s.... and a rather sudden paucity of such articles in the 1960s. 🤔

When I restricted the search to anything before 1970, I get results from symbolic interactionist sociology. I.e. the sociology use of "dyadic" (i.e. any social interaction happening between a pair of individuals).

So looks like dyadic as a sex role thing entered the academic lexicon in the early 70s. Which lines up pretty damn well with The Dialectic of Sex coming out in 1970. 👍️ And indeed, many of the 70s uses of "dyadic" explicitly cite Firestone.

I'm guessing Firestone was probably influenced by the interactionist term. Lots of sociologists were talking about dyadic relationships and/or interactions such as teacher-student, parent-child, husband-wife, etc. In this context, it's not surprising that Firestone would pick dyad as a term to talk about male-female sex roles and interactions.

Other than the 1980s botany articles I didn't actually find much from the pre-2000 biology world, and no leads from the medical literature. This doesn't mean "dyadic" wasn't being used by physicans, just that it isn't showing up in my searches on Google Scholar.

I'm coming out of this with the impression that Merck's got it right to be connecting the intersex-related use of dyadic as originating from the writing of Shulamith Firestone. If anybody knows of competing evidence for an origin, *please* do send it my way as I'd be super interested. But in the absence of other evidence, I'd tentatively say that the term dyadic came out of second wave radical feminism and *not* the intersex community.

[librarycards]

I recently learned about this gfm for Dr. Ellen Samuels, a vital queer disabled scholar and community member, and author of the paradigm-shifting piece, Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time. She popularized and likely even coined the term, which is now in wide use among our communities.

Please share and donate if you can. It's difficult to overstate how important Dr. Samuels is to all of us, and to the continued growth of critical disability studies/activism.

[crowpunkcognitivedecline]

cripple punk flag // not a coining post

hey, so. in disability pride month/july 2021, i made a flag for cripple punk. i got feedback from a number of cripples on the design and wanted to make a post on it since it's this blog's icon. (sources on my website--photosensitivity warning, the background is a raining gif)

black field: mourning, crips of color

light blue: history, joy, invisible disabilities

gold: perseverance, culture, success

red: strength, life, determination

dark blue: accessibility, mobility aid users, community

triangle pattern: unconventional problem solving, overlapping experiences

to be crystal clear, this is not a new flag. it's over two years old, i just didn't share it on tumblr. if you are a cripple, you are free to use this! i'd love to be tagged in anything you use it for though, just to see it.

ableds can reblog if they use the tag #i’m able bodied

[trans-axolotl]

Hi! Can you explain the difference between interphobia, intersexism, and compulsory dyadism? Or are they all synonyms?

hi anon! so to be completely honest some of the way i use these terms is just due to my own personal preferences, but i can explain the way i look at it.

basically, all of these are synonyms describing various facets of intersex oppression.

Intersexism was one of the first terms coined to talk about intersex oppression, and has been the most popular term on tumblr for quite a few years, but is not actually super commonly used in the irl activist spaces I'm in, to be honest. I think someone from one of the OII orgs coined it, but I can't find out who. It was intended to parallel similar terminology like cissexism and heterosexism, but when you start to really think about it, having "inter" as the prefix doesn't make a lot of sense--perisexism or endosexism would be terms that actually parallel cissexism and heterosexism. I sort of stopped using it because I think that it can kind of be confusing, and also that sometimes when you're writing about intersex issues it just looks so similar to the actual word "intersex" that it can cause a lot of confusion.

Interphobia. Also not sure who coined interphobia, but I think it was a natural shortening of "intersexphobia." I more often use interphobia to talk about the instances of intersex hatred where intersex people are being directly or indirectly targeted due to their intersex status. I also use it as an adjective to call people or systems "interphobic" and I prefer using interphobia rather than intersexism because I think it's just a little clearer, and might be easier to understand for people who are familiar with the language of homophobia and transphobia.

Compulsory dyadism was coined by Celeste Orr in the book Cripping Intersex, and is similiar to the term compulsory heterosexuality. It describes a system of oppression that is based on the myth of the sex binary, and how these ideas, practices, social norms, and policies, create structural oppression of intersex people and sets the stage for curative violence. Compulsory dyadism impacts everyone to a certain degree, including endosex people, but intersex people are the most impacted. I use compulsory dyadism when I want to talk about systems, societal attitudes, or elements of intersex oppresion like shame about micropenises or cultural pressure to shave body hair that might also impact endosex people.

so long story short, these days i mostly use "interphobia" and "compulsory dyadism" and use interphobia to talk about intersex hatred and compulsory dyadism to talk about intersex oppression, but that's just my personal preferences for clarity. other intersex people are going to use vocab different ways, which is totally fine.

hope that helps, anon!

[sweet-villain]

Just A Look~ E.M

Summary : Since you told Eddie your feelings, you can't look at him anymore. I don't know, it came to my head and I wanted to write this

Angst

Eddie frowns as he hasn't even gotten a chance to see you look at him, not once since you confessed how you felt about him. He let you know gently only to have to running out the door with tears.

Here you were sitting at the Hide Out nursing a drink in your hands and swinging your legs on the chair as you looked around at the drunks. Steve sat near you as he leaned over, " You okay?" he asked. The bitter tastes of your drink lingers on your tongue as your eyes lock on him.

" 'm okay, Harrington" you mumbled to him, bringing the drink up to your lips as your eyes roamed the table going pass Eddie who can't seem to stop looking at you. He had his hands on the table and was picking at the corner of his nails, a habit he had picked up when he was anxious.

You had been his best friends since the two of you were kid. You had became his safety net and now that safety next is broken and he has no where to confide in.

Steve didn't take your " 'm fine" as clear as day.

" Do you want to leave? I can take you home" He says, twirling his drink in his hands. You shook your head, giving him a gentle smile. You loved that he cared about you but this matter wasn't about him.

You wanted Eddie to feel your pain. As much as he didn't have the same feelings for you. You wanted him to feel somehow hurt. Why were you the only one to have your heart crushed?

" I heard you got a promotion at the record store" Robin cuts the silence between the four of you. You chuckled as you nodded.

" You're looking at the new manager of Red Records" you stood up from your chair as you bowed in front of them, giggling as Robin and Steve clapped. Eddie had a small smile on his lips at your dramatics.

" Before you know, you'll own that baby" Robin says. " Right Steve?" She nudges him. Steve looks over to Eddie to see him fiddling with his rings. " Munson, aren't you happy for Y/N?"

You froze in your spot when you felt his eyes on you. But you didn't dare to look at him. You weren't about to show him how hurt you are even though it would take so much time for you to go back as friends.

" I'm the happiest" he says, his dimples smile coming out as he raises his head hoping you'd look at him. When you don't, his shoulder drop and his dimple smile disappears.

" I forgot to tell you that Back To The Future got returned, come by tomorrow to get it" Steve says as he pats on top of your hand. Eddie eyes his hand on top of your eyes as mix of something else he's feeling bubbling up inside him.

" Thank you, Steve. I'll come by during lunch tomorrow" you sent him a smile grabbing your drink and downing it. It was going to be a long night.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

You were stocking in the new albums that have came into the right shelves when the door opened. You didn't bother to glance at who it was when your heard the familiar jingle of pants and the scent of weed, cigarettes and his shampoo hits you. You turn back around to walk behind the counter and open your notebook to doodle some drawings that you were working on.

Ring clad hand taps on the counter three times to get your attention. You closed the notebook and place your hands on the counter without giving him a look.

" Is the new Metallica album in?" He asks. You turn to walk off the step from around the counter to the section where you placed it and fished it out for him. He follows you there, his fingers graze over your arm and you pull back as it stung you.

" 'm sorry" he says. His brown doe eyes stare at you with hope in his eyes. He brings it to the counter as you ring him. You tell him how much is it and he puts his hand inside the pockets of his vest to take out some dollar bills and coins, dropping them on the counter.

His index finger counts the change as he pushes it towards you with some crips dollar bills and a $5.

You shoved the bag holding the album inside and turn back to your notebook. Eddie bites down on the inside of his cheek as he stands there watching you doodle.

" I miss you" he says. You grip the pencil tight as you looked away to the wall that was right next to you. The paint off of it was chipping, the building was old but you loved it here.

When he doesn't hear you say anything to him, he walks out of the store and you let out a breath of relief that you didn't know you were holding. You can see him sitting in his van and looks up just in time to lock eyes with you.

You look away and down to your notebook coloring in with the pencil, the broken hearts that you were drawing.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Your fingers tap on the steering wheel as you wait for the kids, they were going to be done with Hellfire soon and Steve could not pick them up because he had some sort of date.

The door opened and Dustin walks out with Mike hot on his tails, Lucas is with them as they walk to your car. The door opens and Dustin slides in first along with Lucas and Mike at the end.

Your eyes catch the mane of curls that walked out with his arms across his chest. He stares at your car in longing in hopes you'd even say hi to him. He sighs when he hears the roaring of your engine and watches as you back up.

" Hi Y/N!" the boys say all in one almost bursting your air drum. " Where is Steve?" Dustin asks.

" Pretty boy had a date" you says, looking at them in the review mirror.

" Are you every going to talk to Eddie?" Mikes asks. The question is burning in the back of your mind as you let it sink in for a few moments before you answer.

" Highly unlikely"

" Did he hurt you?" Lucas asked. " We will beat him up for you" He adds. You laugh, shaking your head.

" He's paying the price"

" I'm sorry you feel really weird around him" Dustin reaches to squeeze your shoulder giving you a sympathetic look.

" He broke my heart" you tell him. " I'm not about to let him think I'll be happy be friends with him"

The three boys reach over to wrap their arm around you as you were driving.

" I'm driving here! Hello!" they put their hands up as they sit back down mumbling an apology.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Eddie stares at the red flannel in his hands like it was a ghost in his life. You had borrowed this flannel from him and now Nancy had shoved it into his chest at movie night. He brings it up to his nose and takes a whiff of it. It smells like you.

Eyes are on him as has the flannel up to his face, eyes are glossy as he stiffs in his seat knowing he was being watched.

" What?" he decides to ask.

" You know she's not coming back into your life?" Robins asks. She sighs. " You've hurt her to the point she doesn't want to look at you"

" Or speak to you" Dustin says. Steve shoots him a look that he wasn't helping.

" What do I do?" he asks, looking around the room.

" Let her have her own space and see how things turn out"

" But I miss her" Eddie sniffles as he holds the flannel to his chest. " She's my best friend"

" She was" Mike says. Eddie lifts his head up to meet Mike gaze and shoots him a glare. " She still is" Eddie says.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Eddie hops out of his van with a little step and walks around to get Sweetheart out when he hears your giggle. He turns to look over his shoulder seeing you talking to Gareth outside his garage.

You had stopped by their band practice to bring them some treats. You haven't seen them in quite awhile.

The sound of his footsteps causes you to shut your mouth as you feel his presence near you.

" Y/N" he says, " Hey Gareth" he says. Gareth shoots you a look before he looks at Eddie. He kept looking back and forth.

" Look Gareth, I need to go. I have work soon and Greg isn't going to do inventory on his own. His back has been killing him lately"

" Send Greg my regards, hope he feel better" Gareth pulls you into a hug and yet again, Eddie feels something stirring inside of him as he watches you too. The brief touch of his hand accidentally brushing against your causes you to pause for a moment with your head staring straight ahead, Eddie's breath hitches as he thinks that you were about to say something.

You don't and walk to your car. The guys shoot him a look, " yeah, yeah" Eddie waves them off.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

The door to the record store opens and Eddie storms with his nose twitching, anger look on his face with his jaw clenched tight as he stares at you across the room.

" Okay, listen here you!" he started. His hands are shaking by his sides. " I have enough of your game" you simply didn't say anything as you wrote down on the clip board what else you needed in the store.

Eddie gritted his teeth, " Look at me."

He wasn't about to win this as you headed behind the counter to put the clip board with the notes on the button shelf and took out a box, you needed extra cash into the register.

Eddie stomps his way to the counter as he stands there, opposite of you and glares up at you.

" I'm sorry if I don't feel the same way as you do, but you got some nerve to keep pushing me away. I thought we could be friends at least. You told me you'd be fine with that" you closed the little box up and put it on the shelves.

What you didn't anticipate was Eddie standing next to you when you stood back up, scaring you. You gasped and put your hand on your heart. He backed you up against the register, his breath fanning over your face and yet you were not looking at him.

He groans and cups your face with his hand, squishing your cheek as he turns his head towards him.

" I don't care what you say to me, just speak"

Your eyes gloss over as you look at him for the first time in awhile. He has grown out a little stubble and his brown doe eyes are glossy as he looks down at you.

" I hate you" you say through your squished cheeks. His hand drops to his side as he steps back hearing your words and they break through his heart.

He swallows the lump in his throat aa he steps back, almost falling over the step as he grabs onto the counter. He shakes his head as he turns to the door and walks out.

His own heart is in two as he stands outside in the cold, shivering with tears running down his cheeks.

He knew he lost you. You hated him.

[rebellum]

Thank you so so much for your response, this really clears it up for me! I really appreciate it.

I feel like I'm Missing something on the 'cripplepunk' debate. Like, I've seen people who argue that only people with disabilities labeled as "physical disabilities" can be cripples because others don't understand what it's like to struggle with physical disabilities. And then when people with neurological or psychiatric disabilities point out that depression causes chronic fatigue, and that many illnesses like schizophrenia cause catatonia, or temporary paralysis, or slow movement, the first group argues "that's not the same!"

But why isn't it? What am I missing here?

What's the difference between someone with chronic fatigue only being able to do a big task like showering or cooking once a day, vs someone with depression only being able to to a big task like showering or cooking once a day?

And it must not have to do with getting tired in public, because there are many disabled people, of both non-brain and brain origin, who have to stay home to recover for days after a big outing.

And again, it can't just have to do with the brain. Cerebral palsy is neurological in origin, as are many other physical disabilities.

And it can't just have to do with movement, because people have included those with chronic fatigue syndrome as being "real cripples".

And it can't just have to do with bodily pain, because many physically disabled people don't experience chronic pain as a symptom.

So what is it? What's the difference between two people who both have episodes where they can't move well, who have to spend days recovering from going outside, or who have poor motor control? What enables someone to be a part of the cripplepunk movement?

[maldarchive]

MARVEL OF TERROR Axar N.

That in which I am alive: not an error of judgement but a decision made with all the spectacular failures in history. I was here and I watched the world in pain, I did not try to save it. Is this a cause for commemoration? Isn't it? Slopes of dreamy green collect inside my body like coins I rattle when touched the way my limbs twitch with electrical currents Not an error but a question of keeping delicately cripped out futures in celebration Forget saving, it's time to live! Is this ... Isn't it?

[cripcoin]

Immusyc

Coming from the term Immune System, Immusyc is an umbrella term for all types of and conditions related to the body's defenses, antibodies, the immune system.

Immusyc terms are made with Immunol compromised folk in mind, subterms are made to define the more specific condition or type of immune system someone might have.

For example, ArthrImmusyc is a term for those who's immune system is weakened, damaged or generally affected in some way by their arthritis, whatever form of arthritis one might have.

This term is not for radqueers, transid/x and definitely not for trans(dis)abled. Please do not use my terms/flags.

Nor does this term support any transitioning towards anything harmful to the body, your person or others.

However it does support atypical dysphoria, being if one feels their immune system should or could be affected by one thing or another or that it should be weaker or stronger than it is, or generally having a different experience with one's immune system disconnected from the body, whether that be due to being an alter in a system or something else.

Tagging:

@sanguinaryfreaks , @hewasanamericangirl and @the-church-of-strabismus

This flag is meant for personal use, commercial use is not permitted.

Do not re-upload my flags anywhere, do not claim as your own etc.

[harriet-de-g]

Encore des rêves indociles de justice handie pour la fin du monde

[initialement publié dans la revue Multitude 94, Justice handie pour des futurs dévalidés, traduit de l’anglais (Canada) par Emma Bigé et Harriet de G. Texte Original et Image d'illustration de Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha]

Comme tous les textes de ce blog avant lui, il est disponible à la commande à prix libre, pour permettre de soutenir cette activité. Pour cela, il suffit de m’envoyer un message privé en précisant sa commande, le prix qu’on veut payer, son mail & selon le mode d’envoi : une adresse. Vous pouvez aussi le retrouver ci-dessous ou dans sa version imprimable ici (en pleine page) ou ici (en format cahier).

Tu te rappelles comment, en 2019, on a survécu ? Comment tu as appris que tu avais un cancer, et comment tu as cru que tu allais mourir, soit du cancer, soit de la négligence du chirurgien sur la table d’opération ?

Tu te souviens comment, en 2018, c’était l’année où un groupe de personnes handicapées avait construit un réseau de distribution de masques pendant les incendies de forêt en Californie, distribuant près de 80’000 masques en un mois ? Tu te souviens de la première fois où tu as entendu les termes « pic de pollution de l’air à grande échelle », et comment ce n’était pas la dernière ? Tu te souviens de la première fois où tu as vu une section « justice handie » à la bibliothèque municipale, avec les visages d’Audre Lorde et de Leroy Moore côte à côte sur l’étagère créée par Dustin Gibson ? Tu te souviens quand la loi sur les revenus annuels garantis est passée, et quand le revenu minimum a été augmenté et quand les personnes sous protection sociale avons enfin pu garder nos revenus ? Tu te souviens des réparations obtenues après les abus médicaux ? Tu te souviens du jour où le dernier centre d’internement de force pour jeunes autistes a fermé, et où on s’est retrouvées pour des cérémonies de deuil et de célébration ? Tu te souviens du jour où on a commencé à faire des réserves de masques, d’eau et d’essence avant d’emménager dans la ferme, tenue par des crip racisées, où nous vivons maintenant ? Tu te souviens quand nous avons construit notre premier monument aux mort·es pour célébrer celleux que nous avions perdu‧es, Carrie Ann Lucas, Steve, et toustes les autres ?

Au printemps 2019, Alice Wong du Disability Visibility Project [projet de visibilité handie] m’a demandé d’écrire une suite à mon article de 2017, « Cripper l’apocalypse : rêves indociles pour une justice handie » pour son anthologie Disability Visibility. J’ai dit oui. Et puis, j’ai eu du mal à l’écrire. Il est difficile de rêver quand on est terrifié·e, et c’est et c’était des temps terrifiants. La répétition incessante des traumatismes des trois dernières années, des horreurs du trumpisme qui sont souvent pires que ce que l’on pouvait imaginer, et qui ne cessent de s’empiler les unes sur les autres, m’ont mis·e, moi et tant d’autres de mes proches, dans une sorte d’état perpétuel d’immobilité du type « chevreuil pris dans les phares d’une voiture ». Des camps de concentration aux durcissements des conditions d’accès à la nationalité, de l’ascension de Brett Kavanaugh à la Cour suprême à l’interdiction d’entrée aux ressortisssant·es de pays musulmans, aux feux de forêt dans tous les coins du monde et à la glace qui fond aux deux pôles : on dirait qu’il est plus facile d’apprendre à lire le monde dans un livre que d’essayer de répondre à ses urgences en temps réel.

L’année dernière, au cours de la tournée pour mon livre Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice [le travail de prendre soin : rêver la justice handie], je me suis souvent retrouvé·e à porter (à l’occasion des conversations publiques et sur les campus) le T-shirt conçu par la militante queer handie Latinx Annie Elainey Segarra où il est écrit que LE FUTUR EST ACCESSIBLE. Je fais ce truc régulièrement pendant mes interventions, où je demande au public de fermer les yeux un instant, de plonger au dedans, et d’imaginer le futur. En tant que personnes actives dans le mouvement pour la justice handie, nous savons que l’accès n’est que le premier pas sur la voie d’un futur handi libéré : c’est la rampe qui nous permet d’accéder à la porte où le futur pourra être façonné, mais ce n’est pas le futur comme tel. Mais quand je demande : « okay, à quoi êtes-vous arrivé·es ? », on entend le son des grillons. Tout le monde reste bloqué. Au mieux, iels arrivent à imaginer un futur où iels ne mourront pas dans des camps de concentration.

Mais en tant que personnes handies, nous savons que l’un des plus beaux dons que nous recevons, ce sont nos rêves Fols, malades, handis et Sourds, ces rêves que nous rêvons au-delà de ce que nous sommes autorisé·es à rêver. Et non, je ne parle pas de la « pornographie inspirationnelle », cet imaginaire validiste des rêves handis qui voudrait que « nous ne laissions pas le handicap nous arrêter », qui s’imagine que nous voulons marcher, voir ou être « normales » à tout prix. Être une super-estropiée ou une inspiration, mais jamais un être humain.

Je parle des petites, énormes façons quotidiennes dont nous rêvons de révolutions crips, de la façon que j’ai de me regarder dans le miroir, cheveux en désordre et mon vieux jogging et mes douleurs le cinquième jour d’une poussée majeure, et de dire : vous savez quoi, je ne vais pas me détester aujourd’hui. Et nos rêves de révolutions crips sont aussi dans nos manières de créer des refuges pour handicapées, des réseaux de parrainage pour handicapées, des façons d’aimer, de se battre et de s’organiser pour les handicapées que même les valides les plus talentueux·ses ne pourraient imaginer en un million d’années.

Et malgré toutes les manières dont nous sommes en enfer, nous sommes toujours en train de rêver. Alors que je vais à trois réunions du réseau de soutien par semaine pour des amies confrontées au cancer, à une chirurgie rénale et à des besoins continus en matière de handicap psy. Au moment où je prends, enfin, une profonde inspiration et demande l’aide dont j’ai le plus besoin à mes amies, et que je suis capable de le faire grâce au travail collectif effectué pour rendre l’acceptation de ce soutien sûr et possible. Alors que je commence à devenir l’artiste handicapéE d’âge moyen que j’avais peur de devenir, alors que j’arrête de prendre autant l’avion et que j’apprends à écrire et à parler et à partager mon travail sans voyager dans le Nebraska ou le Maine, dans une communauté d’autres écrivain‧es et artistes handicapé‧es qui ont trouvé une manière crip de produire et de vivre d’excellentes vies d’artistes handicapé·es.

Nous rêvons de brillantes réponses handies à la violence du changement climatique. Mask Oakland distribue 80 000 masques gratuits lors de l’urgence aérienne à grande échelle des incendies de forêt de l’automne 2018 en Californie. #PowerToBreathe, un réseau de douze organisations de justice pour les personnes handicapées, s’unit lors de l’incendie de Kincade de 2019 pour créer un réseau de « centres de survie » accessibles avec des générateurs et des purificateurs d’air pour et par les personnes handicapées qui s’organisent pour survivre aux coupures de courant potentiellement mortelles de de la compagnie électrique PG&E. Nous créons un espace culturel public de justice pour les personnes handicapées racisées, alors que Dustin Gibson, activiste noir basé à Pittsburgh, construit une collection dédiée à la justice handie dans une bibliothèque de quartier.

Quand UnitedHealthcare assassine la militante et avocate handiqueer latinx fèm grosse Carrie Ann Lucas en refusant de lui rembourser un antibiotique à 2000$, nos peurs, nos deuils et nos rages conduisent le Health Justice Commons à établir la toute première ligne d’assistance téléphonique contre les abus médicaux. Les travailleureuses du sexe handicapé·es, les migrant·es handicapé·es, les prisonnier·s handicapé‧es, les personnes handicapées qui sont en invalidité ou utilisent Medicaid se sont auto-organisé·es pour survivre face à Trump – et sont la raison pour laquelle Medicaid et l’ACA ont tenu bon tandis la règle de la « charge publique » de Trump n’a pas été adoptée1.

De nouveaux collectifs de justice handie se multiplient partout, du Disability Justice Network of Ontario à Detroit Disability Power et à Fat Rose. Mon adelphe, læ militant·e queer coréen·ne Stacey Milbern, a acheté et rendu accessible sa maison à East Oakland – le Disability Justice Culture Club – avec les 30’000$ qu’elle reçoit, tous les mois, en petits montant de vingt dollars envoyés des quatre coins de la planète par la communauté handie. Et deux cent personnes handies, grosses et vieilles brandissent des pancartes qui disent irremplaçable et #PersonneN’estJetable aux manifestations de Crips and Fatties Close the Camps [Les estropié·es et les gros·ses ferment les camps] en face des bureaux de la police aux frontière de San Francisco – un aperçu d’un mois de manifestations quotidiennes en août 2019 contre les camps de concentration formés par les services d’immigration aux ordres de Trump, manifestations menées par des personnes grosses et handicapées qui créent des liens entre d’un côté, nos expériences de l’enfermement dans les institutions psy, les maisons de retraites et les hospices, et de l’autre celles des immigrant·es (y compris les immigrant·es handicapé·es) qui sont enfermé·es.

J’écris tout cela pour me rappeler et pour nous rappeler. Même et surtout quand nous sommes terrifiées au point d’être immobilisées, nous continuons à rêver collectivement des futurs de justice handie et à les rendre possibles.

Se souvenir du passé pour rêver le futur : nous nous sommes toujours trouvé·es les un·es les autres

« Tu connais, toi, ce genre de personne handicapée qui veut juste être là pour les autres personnes handicapées, qui ne demande aucune reconnaissance, qui veut juste faire ce qu’il faut ? », me dit mon ami Lenny au téléphone. Bien sûr, je connais. Je ne lui dis pas, mais il a justement toujours été ce genre de personne pour moi.

À l’époque à Toronto, nous étions les deux seules maisons avec des rampes d’accès faites-mains du quartier. Avec le triomphe de la gentrification dans les quartiers ouest de Toronto, nous vivions au milieu de gens pauvres et de maisons aux porches à moitié déglingués. Des années avant le mouvement pour la justice handie qu’on connaît aujourd’hui, sa maison était un lieu où les gens pauvres, les personnes multiraciales, queer et handicapées, pouvaient venir traîner, se soutenir, faire de plans et rire ensemble. Pendant des années, il tenait des « dîners du vendredi soir » où n’importe qui pouvait venir manger. Il me disait toujours à quel point il était important pour lui de centrer le travail sur les estropié·es les moins populaires : celleux qui tiraient la gueule, qui étaient en colère, les « difficiles », les tellement cinglé·es que même les autres Fols s’éloignaient en disant que c’était « vraiment trop ». Parce que le validisme nous tue en nous isolant les unes des autres, il voulait que les gens qui ont le moins de communauté puissent se sentir quelque part à la maison.

Quelques semaines avant cet appel, je donnais un atelier sur les « réseaux de soin (care webs) » dans un centre communautaire local tenu par des personnes queer et trans racisées : comment créer des réseaux d’entraide en tant que personnes handicapées, comment bien recevoir et comment bien offrir du soin. La première moitié de l’atelier s’était bien passée ; j’avais beaucoup parlé du travail de soin non-payé que de nombreuses personnes réalisent, de la difficulté qu’il y a à demander du soin quand on est une personne racisée malade et handicapée en raison de toutes les fois où l’on est forcé de faire ce travail gratuitement, et où l’on est puni·es pour en avoir besoin. Toutes ces manières qui ne cessent de nous rappeler que les bonnes filles, et mêmes les enfants queer, sont celles qui restent pour aider. Toutes ces peurs d’être un fardeau.

Mais les choses se sont corsées quand j’ai commencé à demander : « Ok, maintenant, pensez à un besoin que vous avez, et prenez un temps pour réfléchir à ce qu’il faudrait pour que ce besoin soit bien satisfait ! » Les gens ont répété plusieurs fois : « Pardon, est-ce que tu pourrais réexpliquer la question ? » La température dans la salle est descendue de dix degrés. En bonne facilitatrice, j’ai dit : « Hé, je commence à remarquer une tension, est-ce que quelqu’un veut en parler ? » Et c’était bien le cas. Iels m’en voulaient parce qu’iels avaient l’impression que je leur racontais des contes de fée à propos d’une chose qui ne leur arriverait jamais : recevoir de l’attention. Certain·es d’entre elleux dirent qu’iels n’y croyaient pas : les personnes ne recevraient jamais l’attention appropriée. Quand je leur ai demandé de penser à une chose dont iels avaient besoin et sous quelles conditions ce besoin pourrait recevoir le soin adéquat, une personne a répondu, dégoûtée, « Je comprends pas pourquoi je devrais m’embêter à lister ce dont j’ai besoin – y a pas moyen que je reçoive quoi que ce soit sans qu’on abuse de moi. »

Face à ce cercle de gens tristes, traumatisés et en colère, j’ai ressenti beaucoup de choses. Je me sentais salement triste. Je me sentais stupide. Du genre, comment avais-je pu ne pas me rappeler, en préparant l’atelier, que tant de personnes handicapées et malades n’avaient jamais reçue de soin sans être traitées comme de la merde ? Et une partie de moi aussi était incrédule, frustrée et énervée. À l’intérieur, je me disais : Allez, personne ne t’a jamais donné de cigarette quand tu faisais la queue au bureau des bons alimentaires, personne ne t’a jamais apporté de plats à emporter quand tu étais malade ? Si moi j’ai déjà donné à plus pauvre que moi, vous aussi, non, arrêtez l’embrouille !

Mais je comprends. Au cours des quinze dernières années, depuis que l’expression « justice handie » [disability justice] a été inventée par un petit groupe de personnes handicapées intersectionnelles et radicales, nous avons fait tellement de choses : nous nous sommes retrouvé‧es et nous avons changé le monde. Nous avons fait en sorte qu’il y ait un mouvement des personnes handicapées qui ne soit ni blanc, ni masculin, ni cis. Un mouvement handi où l’on a enfin pu commencer à parler non seulement des meurtres policiers de personnes handicapées noires et racisées, mais aussi des olympiades de la désirabilité validiste qui s’imposent à la communauté queer trans racisée. Nous avons créé des communautés handies et des manières profondes de prospérer. Alors évidemment, je peux l’imaginer ! J’ai eu tellement d’exemples de réseaux de soins handis, imparfaits et beaux. J’ai une décennie de discussions archivées et animées de Sick and Disabled Queers (SDQ) sur mon ordinateur, des souvenirs des moments où nous avons collecté des fonds pour offrir à mon ami Dorian une camionnette accessible en fauteuil roulant que nous voulions également être un accès communautaire à du transport à la demande ou quand les gens envoient des pilules à de parfaits inconnus qui en manquaient. Le tout passant sous le radar valide, le tout sans financement extérieur, intégralement payé par nous. Et bien plus que les collectes de fonds et les collectifs de soins : la façon dont nous avons passé du temps ensemble sans essayer de nous « réparer » ; et comment nous sommes allé‧es rendre visite à des amis dans des maisons de retraite, et comment nous avons joué à des jeux de société, créant des amitiés et des socialisations communautaires où le handicap était au centre. On s’est mutuellement sauvé la vie. Et pourtant, si vous n’étiez pas là au bon moment en 2013 sur SDQ, ce monde-là vous est peut-être invisible, parce que vous n’avez pas pu nous retrouver.

En tant que personnes handicapées, nous sommes à la fois hyper visibles et invisibles. Simultanément dévisagé·es et invisibilisé‧es, notre travail et nos vies sont effacées. Je pense qu’une partie de notre plus grand pouvoir réside dans ce qu’un ami appelle « l’obscurité révolutionnaire ». Nous nous organisons d’une manière inconnue des personnes valides, pour passer sous leur radar. On ne rejoint pas le mouvement pour la justice handie en payant une cotisation à une organisation nationale de justice handie. La justice handie existe partout où deux personnes handicapées se rencontrent à une table de cuisine, sur des bouillottes dans leur lit, discutant de nos amours. N’importe qui peut faire partie de la justice handie s’iel s’organise à partir de ses propres cuillères, de son propre corps et de son esprit, et de sa propre perception des besoins de sa communauté.

Les fondations commencent à comprendre que la « justice handie » est le nouveau truc sexy à financer. Même si l’argent pourrait bien nous être utile, on sait ce que ça fait habituellement aux mouvements. Nous savons que le complexe industriel de la charité a une longue et riche histoire histoire d’investir dans des mouvements puis de les déstabiliser et de les déradicaliser. Dressant les groupes les uns contre les autres, donnant souvent de l’argent aux plus blancs et à celleux qui ont la peau la moins foncée, à ceux qui ont le plus de diplômes et payent leurs impôts. L’argent est tellement compliqué, et pas compliqué du tout, mais tentant. Nous nous creusons la tête en essayant de comprendre comment et quel type prendre. Je ne pense pas qu’il y ait une seule bonne réponse, ni que l’argent soit même le plus risqué pour nous – mais la tension que nous pourrions ressentir à mesure que le Justice handie grandit et que les gens qui ne sont pas nous pensent qu’il est important de s’éloigner d’un mouvement bancal entièrement horizontal d’anonymes où n’importe qui peut avoir une idée, n’importe qui peut diriger, ce que nous avons été, vers un endroit où seuls les estropié·es avec les diplômes et les mots qui ont un sens pour celleux pouvoir sont adoubées comme des stars.

Je crois fermement, comme j’y croyais dans mes années de jeunesse à étudier les techniques de guérilla radicale, que notre pouvoir est plus fort lorsque nous employons une diversité de tactiques selon nos propres conditions – des tactiques qui nous renforcent, qui frappent là où l’ennemi est faible ou faillible. Nous faisons de notre mieux lorsque nous nous battons pour gagner selon nos propres conditions de personnes handies. Pas de compromis. Créez quelque chose de handi et de merveilleux.

Quand j’ai peur de tout perdre, je me rappelle qu’avant même de disposer d’un nom pour nous dire, nous arrivions déjà à nous trouver les un·es les autres. Dans la maison de Lenny, sur les porches de nos maisons avec leurs rampes d’accès bricolées. Et dans les maisons de retraite, dans les prisons, dans les hôpitaux psy, et oui, dans les camps. Je sais que aussi terribles que puissent être les circonstances, nous continuerons à nous trouver les un·es les autres. Nous l’avons toujours fait. Nous nous retrouverons, que nous soyons exalté·es comme le dernier parfum à la mode ou ciblé·es pour être éliminé·es, ou les deux.

Propagations indociles

Je parle depuis le début de l’indocilité des rêves handis, alors voici quelques rêves handis pour les temps qui viennent :

À mesure que grandissent nos réseaux, les personnes qui les composent, les collectifs et les groupes culturels dans lesquels ils s’organisent, pouvons-nous imaginer des formes de communication entre nous ? Pouvons-nous développer des principes pour nos actions et nos solidarités là où le complexe industriel caritatif et les systèmes de pouvoir essayent de nous mettre en compétition ? Pouvons-nous nous préparer à affronter les luttes de pouvoir et les dégâts qui, inévitablement, en résultent ?

Les personnes handies radicales – en particulier les personnes handies noires, autochtones, racisées, queer et trans – vont continuer à écrire, à créer, à faire de l’art. Quelles structures voulons-nous créer pour construire les unes avec les autres ?

Les réseaux sociaux nous ont donné un outil important pour nous connecter les unes aux autres et en finir avec l’isolation des dernières décennies, mais Facebook, Instagram et la plupart des réseaux sociaux étouffent et censurent secrètement nos paroles au point d’empêcher un certain nombre d’entre nous de publier leurs idées, ou de voir leurs idées relayées. Et si nous créions nos propres réseaux sociaux de communication ?

La vieille garde des luttes pour les droits handis est en colère contre les militant·es pour la justice handie parce que nous avons réussi à convaincre davantage de genxtes à se dire handicapées, parce que nous ne sommes pas racistes et parce que nous ne concentrons pas seulement sur le travail de réforme. Nous nous dédions à la construction de maisons, à la construction d’un million de petits groupes plus bizarres les uns que les autres et d’actions et de projets et de hashtag sur Instagram et de médias et d’histoires et de partages de rampe d’accès et de boîtes à outil prêtes à l’emploi pour des bibliothèques et de projets d’habitats partagés et de pratiques de sexe collectives. Alors que se passerait-il si nous prenions la direction de Centres pour la vie en autonomie ou de programmes en Études Handies ? Et si nous faisions quelque chose de complètement nouveau ? Et si nous créions des Centres pour la vie en interdépendance plutôt qu’en autonomie ?

D’ici vingt-cinq ans, les personnes noires, indigènes et racisées constitueront la majorité des personnes vivant aux États-Unis, et l’une des grandes victoires du mouvement pour la justice handie est d’avoir fait en sorte que moins en moins de jeunes personnes racisées ont peur du handicap – de plus en plus d’entre elleux s’en revendiquent, ou l’intègrent à leurs activismes. Que faire de ce potentiel ?

Poussées à quitter les villes côtières par les forces croisées de l’hypergentrification et de la montée des eaux, quelles nouvelles maisons et communautés handies pourrons-nous construire dans ces banlieues et ces terrains vagues de l’exode ? Quels foyers crip construirons-nous sur les îles que deviendront la Floride dans les zones industrielles désaffectées, dans les réserves autochtones ? Que se passerait-il si nous crippions le Green New Deal ? Que se passerait-il si les infrastructures vertes qu’on nous promet adoptait, dès leur point de départ, les principes de justice handie ?

Nous luttons pour maintenir la sécurité sociale tout en sachant que les structures de soin payant telles qu’elles existent ne payent pas suffisamment les soignant·es, et restent trop souvent difficiles d’accès ; nous faisons éclore des structures de soin collectif mais nous savons que pour nombre d’entre nous, elles ne sont pas accessibles, notamment parce que nous aimerions que ce ne soit pas nos ami·e·s qui nous torchent les fesses, ou parce que nous n’avons pas le capital social/amical qui le permettrait, ou parce que nous savons que prendre soin continuellement épuise. Et nous nous demandons : quels sont nos rêves de réseaux d’entraide collective, d’une société où le soin gratuit, juste, accessible, est un droit humain pour toustes ? Et si nous pouvions créer un système d’entraide et de soin à l’échelle de la société fondé sur les principes de justice handie ? Je pense à quelque chose comme la société des Dépossédés de Ursula K. Le Guin où une lune anarcho-syndicaliste est dotée de logements, de travail et d’entrepôts remplis des biens nécessaires pour toustes. Et si tout le monde avait accès à ce genre de soin ? Et si le droit au soin et à l’accès se trouvait inscrit dans toutes les constitutions ? Et si des Réformes du Soin étaient implantées biorégionalement, en lien avec les autochtones qui vivent dans chaque ville, chaque localité ?

Dans son appel à financer sa maison, Stacey Milbern avait écrit « les rêves de justice handie m’ont portée jusqu’ici, et je continuerai à m’appuyer sur eux. » Il n’est pas exclu que d’ici cinq ou cinquante ans, nous soyons toustes mortes, étouffées par les airs viciés des incendies provoqués par le changement climatique. Mais je sais que nous avons déjà persévéré et survécu face à l’adversité. Et je sais cela aussi :

Nous avons ce que nous avons toujours eu, et davantage encore.

Nous savons vivre nos deuils, prier

persister

trouver la résistance dans les plus petits espaces

nous retrouver les unes autres et créer des foyers

nous allonger au milieu de la rue et, animées par le deuil et par la rage, bloquer la circulation

déployer des trésors d’imagination crip

faire des trucs que tout le monde pense impossibles

inventer des gestes indociles et inattendus, qui passent sous les radars et nous permettent de continuer.

1 NdT : L’Affordable Care Act ou « Loi sur la Protection des Patients et les Soins Abordables », surnommée Obamacare, est une législation de 2010 qui, aux États-Unis, édicte l’interdiction pour les assurances de refuser d’exercer des discriminations du fait de maladies ou handicaps. La règle de la « charge publique » permet, sous l’administration Trump, à un État des États-Unis, de refuser un visa à une personne du fait de son handicap/sa maladie faisant d’elle une « charge » pour la collectivité.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

[intervex]

Teratical: a coining for people who want to resist/subvert ideas of "monstrosity"

Teratical: an individual whose appearance is stigmatized in a way that society frames as "monstrous", who is critical of this framing and seeking to reject/resist/subvert ideas of "monstrosity". A solidarity-building term for liberation-seeking minorities that are the subjects of teratology: intersex people, disabled people, fat people, people with disfigurements, etc.

The term rhymes with "emphatical". The word teratical is presently an obscure word in English which means “incredible, marvellous” and shares the root terato- (monstrous) that is used in medicine. 😯

Speaking back to teratology

This is a backdoor way of reclaiming of the root terato- (monstrous) that is used in medicine. Teratology is the study of congenital “defects” and continues to be an active subfield of biomedical research. Some related terms include: teratosis (having such a congenital difference), teratogenesis (the development of a teratosis), and teratogen (an environmental substance which causes teratogenesis).

The scope of teratology as a discipline has long included intersex people, people with disfigurements, and a large variety of disabilities. It includes environmental teratoses (e.g. fetal alcohol syndrome) and genetic ones (e.g. Down syndrome). It’s worth noting that teratology has consistently included the study of people whose “monstrous” traits emerged over the course of their life span. Intersex variations which first become apparent at puberty have reliably been within the scope of teratology: congenital means you were born on this path, not necessarily that it was visible at birth.

While fatness, madness, and acquired disfigurements (e.g. burn survivors) haven't consistently been within the scope of teratology, the point here is for us teratical folks to reframe the conversation. I don't see a need to limit ourselves to the traditional scope of teratology. Fat people, burn survivors, mad folks, and anybody else who feels the spectre of monstrosity can use the term.

Why coin this term?

Because I want a way to talk about the shared history of intersex, disfigurement, and disability. I want a way for us to talk about our common political struggles. And I want a way to do it on Tumblr without invoking the Discourse around the term crip. 👀

There’s an academic niche which takes a critical disability lens to the concept of monstrosity (monstrosity studies), and I think it’d be nice to be able to tap into that while working to build solidarity between the intersex, fat, mad, disability, and disfigurement communities.

@scifimagpie contributes a verb form, teraticalizing: to subvert notions of monstrosity in ways connected to disability/intersex/fat/etc justice/liberation. In the same vein of how queering and cripping are verbs used to subvert binaries and ideas about ability.

Flag details

The flag is inspired by the Disability Pride Flag and the Crip Pride Flag. Its stripes represent:

Yellow: the affirmation model of disability. Our existence is not a tragedy. Our lives and our unique viewpoints are valuable. Our bodies are beautiful.

Blue: the social model of disability. It’s not us who are the monsters: the monstrosity we face is the oppression we face.

Olive (yellow-green): the eco-social model of disability. The social model focuses on how the interactions we have in our daily lives disable us. The eco-social model winds back the clock to point out that we can be disabled by social decisions made long before we were born. For example, lead pollution in POC communities is a social cause of disability. I think of this model as “social determinants of health” meets environmental justice meets disability studies.

Purple: the social construction model of disability. “Disability”, “intersex”, and related categories are created by humans, and who is and isn’t included in the categories changes over time and across cultures. Beauty is also socially constructed.

Cerise (pink-red): the radical model of disability. Disability is socially constructed, but in practice we disabled people don’t actually get to control the definition of disability. So let's focus on who experiences ableism. Ableism does not act alone: it shares a deep history with racism and cisheteroperinormativity. 

You can learn more about these (and other) models of disability on their Wikipedia page! (Full disclosure: I created and wrote the bulk of the text in the article 😅).

Sub-coinings

While I'm in term coining mode, I thought I'd get the ball rolling on some subtypes:

Interteratical: teratical in a way that is linked to being intersex (e.g. “bearded lady” presentation of hyperandrogenism, Klinefelter’s)

Neuroteratical: teratical in a way which is neurological, such as tremors, paralysis, seizures, dyspraxia, autism, etc.

Musculoskeleteratical: teratical in a way which is musculoskeletal (e.g. brachydactyly, hip dysplasia, kyphoscoliosis)

Syndesmoteratical: teratical in a way connected to a connective tissue disorder (e.g. EDS, Marfan’s)

Dermoteratical: teratical in a way which is dermatological (e.g. albinism, vitiligo)

Fat-teratical: teratical in a way which is linked to being fat

Mad-teratical / psychoteratical: teratical in a way which is mad/mental

Enviroteratical: teratical in a way which is linked to environmental causes (e.g. lead)

Genoteratical: teratical in a way which is genetic (e.g. Down Syndrome, CAH)

Cryptoteratical: teratical in a way which is unknown or unclear (credit: @scifimagpie)

Racioteratical: teratical in a way which is amplified by being racialized

Flags and additional subcoinings on demand. 💜

Tagging for archival: @disabilityflagsarchive @disabilityflags @mad-pride @varsex-pride @radiomogai @liom-archive @interarchive

[acyborgkitty]

"Similarly, as disability studies scholar Carrie Sandahl (who coined the phrase we use as the exhibit’s title, in her article “Queering the Crip, or Cripping the Queer”) writes, “Those who claim both identities may be best positioned to illuminate their connections, to pinpoint where queerness and ‘cripdom’ intersect, separate and coincide.”'

[masculinerose]

In regards to people asking if this can be applied to non-physically disabled people:

[Image ID: The original poster, identitty-dickruption, replying to mephorash with "the term was coined by crip theorists, who generally see disability as a much broader category than the general public and even cpunks here on tumblr. like. it's an academic term. that being said, "mad labour" also applies for those in the Mad community" /end ID]

hey, disabled person! do you feel tired all the time? do you feel like you’re working twice as hard as abled people for half the outcome? do you take longer to do every single little thing than an abled person would see as reasonable? well. I would like to introduce you to the concept of crip labour (I first came across this in Smilges, 2023 but I cannot verify whether they came up with the term)

crip labour is a term to describe all the extra work disabled people do on a day-to-day basis. it’s also a form of labour that is invisible to abled people, because they just don’t have to think about most of it. it includes:

the extra labour required to get ready to leave the house in the morning (e.g. the extra steps involved in getting dressed or having a shower)

the social labour required in order to communicate your needs to abled people

the labour involved in having to plan ahead (e.g. knowing where accessible toilets are, knowing where ramp access is, knowing which venues are safe for you to be in)

the administrative labour involved in gaining access to particular institutions (e.g. applying for disability welfare, applying for education access plans, etc)

having a term to describe all the labour involved in keeping yourself alive and happy helps to make that labour more visible. it gives us a way to point out that we are doing more and with less capacity, and it helps to explain why so many of us are so exhausted all the goddamn time

so I hope this is a helpful term for people to bring into their lives!